By Sara Trigoboff
Beyond the Village is a new feature that highlights different neighborhoods outside of, well, the Village. No, you won’t get mugged if you leave Manhattan (not a promise).
Did you just move into a new apartment and need furniture? Considering a trip to NYC’s only Ikea in Brooklyn? Well, although you may love those Swedish meatballs, Red Hook offers good reason to go past the parking lot.
The people in Red Hook, perhaps because of its sparse access to public transportation and particular geography, don’t seem self-conscious — they live in the streets as they would in their homes on old chairs and street corners. Red Hook itself is in a flux, as old time scenes are mixed with hipster pastoral-bikes and gritty modernism. On one side of Ikea are public housing projects (but not necessarily the don’t-walk-here-alone types), while the other side boasts row houses and new buildings (most of which advertise rentals).
The neighborhood’s history as one of the main docking ports of New York has always distinguished the neighborhood and its distance from public transportation has further isolated it, crafting a particularly distinct sense of community within the neighborhood. Don’t believe me? Check out these places:
To do:
Red Hook Community Farm (Between Columbus St. and Ostego St.; right across from Ikea)
Red Hook has a long history of agriculture, but the land that once grew tobacco (Greenwich Village, Governors, Wards and Roosevelt Islands were also tobacco fields) is now home to the Red Hook Community Farm, an initiative from the sustainable development non-profit Added Value. The farm has open volunteer hours on Thursdays, Fridays and Saturdays along with a farmer’s market.
Brooklyn Waterfront Museum (290 Conover St.)
Do you have a birthday coming up? Why not treat you and 14897 of your friends to a ride on the last covered wooden barge of its kind? Barge #79 docks at the Waterfront Museum in Red Hook and offers group tours for $7 per person with a $100 minimum. Open barge is on Saturdays from 1–5 pm and Thursdays 4–8 pm, but definitely check before going, since it’s dependent on the schedule of a idiosyncratic circus juggler sea captain. For real.
The Brooklyn Waterfront Artists Coalition (499 Van Brunt St.)
The Coalition is getting ready for a new group art show, Lineage. The exhibition is open September 25th to October 31st and will feature 300 artists with 1200 works in all types of media.
Valentino Pier (Past Ferris St. and Van Dyke St.)
Free yoga classes (Saturdays at 10 a.m.), kayaking and canoeing trips (Thursday and Sundays through October) — yeah, I wonder why I wasn’t here earlier too. Plus, the last of the very popular Red Hook summer films series is showing here on September 14th, where you can watch The Pirates of the Caribbean in the shadow of the Statue of Liberty.
Where to Eat:
Baked (359 Van Brunt St.)
You may know this bakery from their popular cookbook, impressive (and really good) selection of desserts, cookies, pies, cakes and brownies; the sweet and salty brownie is not to be missed.
The Good Fork (391 Van Brunt St.)
One of those places to visit if your parents are the ones paying. Enjoy some homespun, vaguely American food that uses produce from the Added Value Farm (see below).
The Red Hook Food Vendors (Clinton St. & Bay St.; near Red Hook Park) — Saturdays and Sundays
Here’s a 33-year-old consortium of vendors selling Latin American food in Red Hook park on Saturdays and Sundays. After being made to move their open air market into trailers (health code), a competition was launched for a new market design and with the help of Architects for Humanity NY, four finalists were chosen and their designs along with a photo exhibit will be presented at The Queens Museum of Art from September 18th-October 3rd. Another reason to visit Flushing Meadows Corona Park!
How to get to Red Hook:
Ikea provides a complimentary shuttle from the Smith Street, Borough Hall and 4th Ave./9th St. subway stations. The ferry used to be free, but proving too popular (damn those 11,000 residents, taking advantage of a corporate generosity), it now costs $5.00 one way Monday through Friday and runs every 40 minutes from 2:00 p.m, but you get a $5.00 credit with a minimum $10.00 Ikea purchase and a free ride back with a receipt. Ikea has kept it running free on the weekends, every 20 minutes from 11:00 a.m; because you know the only people who have time to shop during the week are unemployed or students.
(Image via)
